March 17 - A Choice

Neal Boortz is one of my favorite talk show hosts. A self proclaimed libertarian, he aligns with my beliefs 90% of the time. Sometimes, 10% if you are any good at math :-), though he really blows it. Most recently he ranted on how gay people have no choice, they are born that way.

This whole source of gay-ness argument is just the nature vs. nurture debate all over again. In one corner you have people, generally on the left side of the political spectrum, who say homosexuals were born that way and can do less about it than they can do about the color of their hair. In the other corner, you have people, generally God-fearing conservative folk, who say that you are born with a choice and that to choose to be gay is sin. For both groups, everything is black and white, you are or you are not and that's that.

My suspicion is that both groups are right, to some degree. We are all products of both our genetic heritage and our up-bringing. Our genetic heritage is an influence in the decision we make. For instance, being hefty and of average height, I am pretty unlikely to play basketball. It isn't just a choice, my genetic pre-disposition made it unlikely that I was every going to play basketball. Further, I develop nausea at the sight blood and traumatic injury. This makes it largely unlikely that I ever would become a doctor no matter what I chose. Could I overcome these deficiencies? Certainly, but I would have to do that first just to get on even footing with other, more genetically gifted individuals.

Evidence shows that some people are, in fact, born gay. They grow up in "normal" households and still feel different and have different drives and desires. Like height, this sort of thing would pretty much have to follow a distribution, with some people feeling more this way and some people feeling less. Since most of us have a strongly heterosexual up-bringing, any that might have less than compelling drives and desires in this way would likely learn to innately suppress these at a relatively early age. We wouldn't even know they were there because they would be over-ridden with the fear,disgust,disdain,whatever that we learned. For some, though this would not prove to be enough.

Even so, someone who still feels strongly compelled to be gay has a choice. They can still choose to suppress their desires and lead a heterosexual lifestyle... and probably be very unhappy. This evidently happens regularly. Or they can choose to give in to their desires and lead a homosexual life... and probably still be unhappy because they have to overcome the fear,digust,disdain,whatever that they learned growing up.

For some they are driven less by nature and more by nurture, to homosexuality. In these cases they way they were raised, whether in a very hedonistic household or one so terribly strict or abusive they rebelled or whatever the case may be, combined with their social environment contributes to their choice. Fashion combined with lack of inhibition and probably curiosity compels some to "try" homosexuality.

And you have shades in-between. The point is everybody has a choice to try to overcome their God given limitations. All of us have limitations that prove too great for us to overcome so we do not become basketball players, Olympic swimmers, rocket scientists, great philanthropists, or whatever. And don't tell me you couldn't do it, Earl Boykins plays pro ball for the Denver Nuggets at 5'5". He chose to overcome his limitations. Most of us don't have it in us to be able to overcome such limitations and be the best we can be. Just look at the obesity epidemic in this country to see that most of us can not always choose to do what we know is right, even as we are continually taught what that is.

So when Boortz went off on his rant, trivializing the "choice" position by saying "what, do you think a person walks along, tra la la, and says 'I know, I think I'm going to be gay.'", he made himself look a fool. On the other hand, when folks on the right say that "it is a choice" they generally trivialize how hard that choice can be to make and make themselves look ignorant.

How this should inform public policy, I don't yet know. I know that honest and abidable public policy can not be made until both sides leave their corners on the nature vs. nurture issue.